NEISD Superintendent Brian Gottardy speaks at the kick off "national attendance awareness month." The event highlights the importance of attendance and a public education campaign on the matter being directed by SA2020 strategists and P16Plus Council of Greater Bexar County called "SA kids attend to win."

A cadre of community partners focused on curbing student absenteeism announced plans Friday to track attendance in at least 20 schools and intervene with parents to try to keep kids in school.

Dubbed “SA Kids Attend to Win,” the countywide campaign aims to educate parents about the importance of getting their children to school.

“If a student misses even 10 days a year — excused or unexcused — it doubles their chances of dropping out of high school,” said Judy McCormick, executive director of the P16Plus Council of Greater Bexar County, the lead partner in the initiative. “We're going to be working with families in a positive way to help get to the root of attendance issues.”

She said the group plans to get the message across, in both English and Spanish, through public service announcements and various school events.

Attendance among the targeted families increased by as much as 50 percent under the program, which including talking to parents to get to the underlying cause of absences, he said.

“Many of our parents really don't understand that when (kids are) in pre-K or (kindergarten), that attendance is mandatory,” Gottardy said. “A lot of times they think that it's not necessary so its important that we have that conversation.”

He said transportation, health issues and a lack of awareness of school policies are the most common reasons students miss school.

SA2020 chief strategist Jeanne Russell said the campaign will help the city meet its goals to increase kindergarten and college readiness and assure that all students are reading at grade level by the third grade.

State Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio, linked the attendance initiative to a bill he co-authored to create a uniform truancy policy for the city and county.

He said the 16 school districts in and around San Antonio each handles attendance consequences in its own way, leading to “major fragmentation.”

As a former Harlandale ISD administrator, Pre-K 4 SA CEO Kathy Bruck said she knows student record reviews of chronically absent eighth-graders almost always led back to earlier attendance issues.

“Almost without fail, the records in pre-kinder and kinder -- as far as attendance went -- set the stage for their academic career,” Bruck said. “We're working very hard with our parents here to help them understand how important their role is in the education of their child.”